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Tales of the Amazons
After returning from the dead, Diana will face her greatest foe A world that has moved on without her! Discover the stories of Diana, Artemis, and Nubia, as they all build toward the Trial of the Amazons crossover series.
After the events of Dark Metal Diana has returned from the Sphere of the Gods. Where she should be feeling joyful, Diana can’t help feeling lost and purposeless. Has the world moved on without Wonder Woman in her absence? As Diana travels to visit an old friend, she’s faced with quite literal dark reflections of herself being puppeteer by her old nemesis, the Image-Maker. Meanwhile a prophecy of doom has come to the world of the Amazons, all leading to the Trial of the Amazons crossover event!
Collects Wonder Woman #781-784; Wonder Woman 80th Anniversary 100-Page Super Spectacular #1; Wanted #1; Rebirth #1; Coronation Special #1
After the events of Dark Metal Diana has returned from the Sphere of the Gods. Where she should be feeling joyful, Diana can’t help feeling lost and purposeless. Has the world moved on without Wonder Woman in her absence? As Diana travels to visit an old friend, she’s faced with quite literal dark reflections of herself being puppeteer by her old nemesis, the Image-Maker. Meanwhile a prophecy of doom has come to the world of the Amazons, all leading to the Trial of the Amazons crossover event!
Collects Wonder Woman #781-784; Wonder Woman 80th Anniversary 100-Page Super Spectacular #1; Wanted #1; Rebirth #1; Coronation Special #1
176 pages, Hardcover
First published November 1, 2022
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28 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
December 7, 2023
Not what I expected it to be. This seemed more of an excuse to have multiple people collaborate than a short story collection. This was more messy and seemed to be all over the place. I was hoping for actual tales centered around the island that Wonder Woman is from....
December 14, 2024
Dear Lord, please spare me from reading more Wonder Woman comics like this. The writing is bad throughout, and the art gets somewhy worse towards the end. It really is an odd choice to go with such bland designs for the gods (except Hephaestus, who remains the same).
November 11, 2023
I found myself a fan of the Conrad/Cloonan era of Wonder Woman comics, in part because it encompassed the Joëlle Jones Wonder Girl age but also once I had a look I was intrigued by the rest of it. Now, of course, this era is over. Trial of the Amazons was a demonstration of its ambition, and Tales of the Amazons by extension suggests how much further it intended to go. Whether or not the remaining run (two more collections of Wonder Woman, Lazarus Planet: Revenge of the Gods) actually bore out the potential, I’m uncertain. But I set out to read Tales for two specific reasons.
One was Artemis: Wanted, a coda to Trials that turns out to have been segue. The other was to revisit Olympus: Rebirth.
Now, the Conrad/Cloonan era turned out to be fairly brief, in the grand scheme, some thirty issues and change. It’s not exactly Geoff Johns’ Green Lantern, Jason Aaron’s Thor. It had that kind of potential. I think if King hadn’t come along as such a compelling prospect for Dawn of DC, it might have gotten a shot at it.
A more apt comparison might be Chip Zdarsky’s Daredevil, which played out to little enough notice but considerable ambition to make a statement, got to do at least one big story in the bargain, before another creator got control. I don’t know how many issues he got out of his run (Marvel reboots titles so instinctually these days, even in the middle of a run, it’s hard to keep track without looking it up), but it was a decent if not very long amount.
Anyway, where Zdarsky tried to have a reckoning with matters usually brushed past, Conrad and Cloonan (they had a number of faithful collaborators represented in Tales) clearly had designs on the classic Greek pantheon, which of course was the point of Olympus: Rebirth.
The problem, if there was one, was that the era was probably easy to lose sight of at a time when everyone seems to have an agenda that doesn’t necessarily have much to do with simply telling good stories. The Nubia: Coronation Special particularly gets tangled in such matters. It’s too easy to dismiss all of it as various Amazons standing around talking rather than stories happening around them, and yet all of this involves delicate maneuvering to finally give Wonder Woman decent context, a real world to have behind her, a community (or three), including all the characters who have also held that title, or Wonder Girl. Too often, like the Flash, DC is too happy to collapse her supporting cast to the immediate needs of the moment. Batman can keep a thousand Robins juggling in the air, even Superman can keep various Supermen in play, but Wonder Woman, most often, reverts simply to herself.
Tales, then, is an anthology to purpose, a testament. These characters are worthy of being remembered, of being definitively integrated into the tapestry. Think of it as pertaining to Trials, but also a reminder, on its own merits, of Wonder Woman’s own pantheon.
One was Artemis: Wanted, a coda to Trials that turns out to have been segue. The other was to revisit Olympus: Rebirth.
Now, the Conrad/Cloonan era turned out to be fairly brief, in the grand scheme, some thirty issues and change. It’s not exactly Geoff Johns’ Green Lantern, Jason Aaron’s Thor. It had that kind of potential. I think if King hadn’t come along as such a compelling prospect for Dawn of DC, it might have gotten a shot at it.
A more apt comparison might be Chip Zdarsky’s Daredevil, which played out to little enough notice but considerable ambition to make a statement, got to do at least one big story in the bargain, before another creator got control. I don’t know how many issues he got out of his run (Marvel reboots titles so instinctually these days, even in the middle of a run, it’s hard to keep track without looking it up), but it was a decent if not very long amount.
Anyway, where Zdarsky tried to have a reckoning with matters usually brushed past, Conrad and Cloonan (they had a number of faithful collaborators represented in Tales) clearly had designs on the classic Greek pantheon, which of course was the point of Olympus: Rebirth.
The problem, if there was one, was that the era was probably easy to lose sight of at a time when everyone seems to have an agenda that doesn’t necessarily have much to do with simply telling good stories. The Nubia: Coronation Special particularly gets tangled in such matters. It’s too easy to dismiss all of it as various Amazons standing around talking rather than stories happening around them, and yet all of this involves delicate maneuvering to finally give Wonder Woman decent context, a real world to have behind her, a community (or three), including all the characters who have also held that title, or Wonder Girl. Too often, like the Flash, DC is too happy to collapse her supporting cast to the immediate needs of the moment. Batman can keep a thousand Robins juggling in the air, even Superman can keep various Supermen in play, but Wonder Woman, most often, reverts simply to herself.
Tales, then, is an anthology to purpose, a testament. These characters are worthy of being remembered, of being definitively integrated into the tapestry. Think of it as pertaining to Trials, but also a reminder, on its own merits, of Wonder Woman’s own pantheon.
April 28, 2025
Although I rated Trial of the Amazons with three stars, I actually enjoyed this grouping of stories that happen after that story takes place. This entry in the series added a lot of background information that helped me understand what went down in TOTA. I also thought it helped the individual characters breathe a bit more, like Donna Troy, Hippolyta, and Artemis. I will say though, after all these stories, I still don’t fully understand why Hippolyta had to die. This was the biggest issue I had with TOTA, so the fact that wasn’t more plausibly explained, I still didn’t get everything I was looking for.
I was also hoping to get more Yara Flor, since she’s on the cover of this book, but it’s just a marketing ploy because she’s basically not even in these tales, so that kinda sucked and was false advertisement on DC’s behalf. And now that I think about it, we didn’t really get any Wonder Woman and she’s on the cover as well. I guess they do that to get people to buy it, but still it’s shady. (And for the record I love the cover.)
Some of the stories that were highlights for me was when Nubia was talking
to the detective and he was trying to level with her. It was nice to see two characters from different walks of life talk about race and its oppression. The Artemis story really stuck out to me as well. I’ve always liked her as a character in the Wonder Woman world because she is almost an opposite to her where she believes in being a little bit more aggressive and doing questionable things to keep her sisters safe. I like that anti-hero element she brings. I thought it was nice getting to know more about her backstory and why she helped kill Hippolyta, which the premise still seems dumb to me, but I like Artemis’ blind loyalty to her queen.
It was also fun to see Donna Troy and Artemis fighting. I feel like we haven’t seen Donna worked up this bad in a while and I liked the panel that did a nod to her history in the comics. The art was also top notch in this collection, which is no surprise, especially since all the graphic novels in the TOTA series have been phenomenal. Although the premise is definitely still shaky, I think this is a fun read for anyone who loves a strong woman in comes or someone who loves the Wonder Woman world.
I was also hoping to get more Yara Flor, since she’s on the cover of this book, but it’s just a marketing ploy because she’s basically not even in these tales, so that kinda sucked and was false advertisement on DC’s behalf. And now that I think about it, we didn’t really get any Wonder Woman and she’s on the cover as well. I guess they do that to get people to buy it, but still it’s shady. (And for the record I love the cover.)
Some of the stories that were highlights for me was when Nubia was talking
to the detective and he was trying to level with her. It was nice to see two characters from different walks of life talk about race and its oppression. The Artemis story really stuck out to me as well. I’ve always liked her as a character in the Wonder Woman world because she is almost an opposite to her where she believes in being a little bit more aggressive and doing questionable things to keep her sisters safe. I like that anti-hero element she brings. I thought it was nice getting to know more about her backstory and why she helped kill Hippolyta, which the premise still seems dumb to me, but I like Artemis’ blind loyalty to her queen.
It was also fun to see Donna Troy and Artemis fighting. I feel like we haven’t seen Donna worked up this bad in a while and I liked the panel that did a nod to her history in the comics. The art was also top notch in this collection, which is no surprise, especially since all the graphic novels in the TOTA series have been phenomenal. Although the premise is definitely still shaky, I think this is a fun read for anyone who loves a strong woman in comes or someone who loves the Wonder Woman world.
May 8, 2024
Possibly the worst put together book in DC history? The first part is a 4 "issue" found in the back of Wonder Woman issues that are the direct lead-in of Trial of the Amazons and then the rest of the book deals with the aftermath of the event...which is a murder mystery, revealing what happened and who the murderer is.
June 30, 2025
A solid companion piece to Trial of the Amazons. This fills in some questions about events in Trial, and I actually preferred reading this AFTER Trial, even though the backups came in WW 781-784 BEFORE Trial. The other one shots were pretty entertaining. I am hopeful to see what is coming in the last two WW books!
January 21, 2023
Younger Wonder Woman is so adorable
July 9, 2024
3.5 stars
February 18, 2025
So many pretty colors!
January 28, 2023
I was actually enjoying this book at first. It's supposed to be a companion to Trial of the Amazons. Some of the stories are lead up to that, and some of them are in it's aftermath. And after reading the first few I was thinking to myself how this was actually a better book over all.
But then near the middle I run into a story written by Vita Ayala and Stephanie Williams, and that killed all joy and momentum I had. I can't even bring myself to finish the book now. And no, it's not just because of their names, in fact I had to look who wrote the story. If I had noticed they were attached to it in any way, I'd have not picked it up. But it's not their presence alone that makes me say this is dog shit. I'm also not a big fan of the politics and behavior of Kelley Sue DeConnick, but I gave a fairly even and decent review to Ghost: In the Smoke and Din.
No, it just started smacking me in the face and calling me a racist and a sexist, but mostly a racist. And it did so it the dumbest way possible. I can't imagine why the comic industry is constantly having to lie to itself and use the sales of manga to prop itself up and say everything is fine. I can't imagine why they went from the big two selling hundreds of thousands of copies to millions on some titles, to having trouble cracking even fifty thousand now, and those are good selling titles. Surely it has nothing to do with tripe like was offered by these two hacks. Tripe so bad that they took a book I was enjoying and made it so I can't even finish it. As long as Marvel and DC are hiring idiot activists like them, I'll shed no tears when they finally get themselves gutted by their parent companies, when Disney and WB finally wise up and just start licensing the books themselves, and wash their hands of this insanity.
But then near the middle I run into a story written by Vita Ayala and Stephanie Williams, and that killed all joy and momentum I had. I can't even bring myself to finish the book now. And no, it's not just because of their names, in fact I had to look who wrote the story. If I had noticed they were attached to it in any way, I'd have not picked it up. But it's not their presence alone that makes me say this is dog shit. I'm also not a big fan of the politics and behavior of Kelley Sue DeConnick, but I gave a fairly even and decent review to Ghost: In the Smoke and Din.
No, it just started smacking me in the face and calling me a racist and a sexist, but mostly a racist. And it did so it the dumbest way possible. I can't imagine why the comic industry is constantly having to lie to itself and use the sales of manga to prop itself up and say everything is fine. I can't imagine why they went from the big two selling hundreds of thousands of copies to millions on some titles, to having trouble cracking even fifty thousand now, and those are good selling titles. Surely it has nothing to do with tripe like was offered by these two hacks. Tripe so bad that they took a book I was enjoying and made it so I can't even finish it. As long as Marvel and DC are hiring idiot activists like them, I'll shed no tears when they finally get themselves gutted by their parent companies, when Disney and WB finally wise up and just start licensing the books themselves, and wash their hands of this insanity.
December 13, 2022
Much better described as the aftermath to Trial of the Amazons. At the very least, we do finally learn what exactly was going on with Hippolyta's death. I'm not sure how I feel about it all, honestly. It still feels kind of out of nowhere, but I guess my opinion could be changed if Hippolyta's new station as god of Olympus is used well in future stories.
February 13, 2023
*3.5. An anthology companion not bad but only stories I truly enjoyed were about Artemis and the Olympus rebirth. I enjoyed those som much that they alone make this a 3.5 book. The other stories I truly could have done without.
March 1, 2023
Mix of story quality with tie ins to Trial of the Amazons.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews